During its initial nine years of support, the Pennington COBRE has led a significant effort to enhance the research base in metabolic diseases in Louisiana by recruiting and mentoring junior faculty who will become the next generation of scientists to power the discovery process. This goal was advanced through a sustained and highly integrated mentoring plan that resulted in attainment of significant new independent funding by and academic promotion of our junior investigators. To continue enhancement of the research base developed in Phases I and II, we will implement a Pilot and Feasibility grant program in Phase III to support innovative research in the areas of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic diseases. The goal of this program is to provide developmental support for meritorious projects that lead to further expansion of extramural funding of Center scientists. To accomplish this objective, the Phase III COBRE will support meritorious Pilot and Feasibility projects that are thematically aligned with the Center's scientific objectives and are focused on one or more of the following categories: 1) proposals from junior faculty without extramural funding, 2) proposals from junior and senior faculty aimed at testing an innovative hypothesis that is a clear departure from currently funded research in their laboratories, 3) collaborative proposals from research teams that take advantage of diverse strengths of different team members, and 4) proposals that have translational potential from individuals or teams of investigators.